Matt Stefan is a successful full-time professional bass fisherman, and he’s been posted how-to video tips to YouTube since 2014. At the time of this writing, Stefan has 31,600 YouTube subscribers, 662 videos, and 4.6 million total video views.
The 6-minute video below was recommended to me by the YouTube algorithm recently, and truth be told, I figured it would be a waste of time. I was completely wrong.
I fish a wacky rig a decent amount, especially during spring when pre-spawn bass are cruising the shallows looking for food. A wacky rig is a proven lure for targeting spawning bass, too, and it’s great throughout summer and fall when bass move shallow to feed.
When I read the word “reverse” in Stefan’s YouTube video title, I thought it had something to do with how the plastic worm was rigged on the hook. Wrong. Here, “reverse” refers to the direction of the worm’s movement in the water column; an angler allows a reverse wacky worm to float toward the surface rather than sink toward the bottom.
Sound unique? It is, which is why I’m highlighting the technique here.
I’ve been pursuing bass for a half century, and almost nothing surprises me these days when it comes to lure rigging or presentations. Almost everything that most anglers under the age of 35 see as new today is a minor modification of something else that’s been around for decades. Not in this case.
As you’ll see in Stefan’s video, this system requires a floating plastic worm, the more buoyant the better. Stefan likes a Z-Man Floating WormZ. Next, you must use a small fine-wire hook. The worm should easily float the hook. Finally, before tying on the hook, you thread a sliding sinker of some type on the line. (The shape of the sliding sinker isn’t critical.)
Bass certainly get conditioned to seeing soft plastics fall a certain way, at a certain rate. But with Stefan’s technique, you can twitch the worm down to the sinker, then feed it line to let it swim and shimmy toward the surface. Crazy!
Watch the video. The worm looks 100 percent alive. I can’t express in words how excited I am to try this technique during fall 2022 and spring 2023. Shallow-water bass won’t stand a chance.
One statement in the comments section of the video sums up my thoughts precisely: “Holy cow, that is pure gold right there!!”
FYI: Like many anglers who post content regularly to YouTube, Stefan receives a small payment for Tackle Warehouse sales generated through lure links provided in his video descriptions. That’s simply the reality to making a living as a professional fisherman today. Trust me on this one, unless you are one of the top couple dozen professional bass anglers in the game, you aren’t getting rich. The vast majority of touring pros are just trying to break even or make a little bit of money.
